Goal Seek

Goal Seek is one of the What-If tools used to calculate how much to change an argument of a formula, or argument that indirectly affects to it, in order to get a certain result. This is a simple option that can be used, for example, to calculate the sales price of the item that is needed to reach the desired sales level. Learn about the Goal Seek option in the text that follows …

In our example, we have created a table with articles, prices and amount of sales in a certain period of time. In the end, we calculated the total sales for all items in the table. If we want to come up with an answer as to how much it is necessary to increase the price of the article under regular no. 1 to reach the total sales level of 6,000,000 we will use the Goal Seek option.

To start this option, we first need to position the Data ribbon and then choose the Goal Seek option from the What-If Analysis menu. A dialog of the same name will be opened, consisting of three fields. We enter them: the cell’s cell address, the value that it needs to become, and the name of the cell that we are going to change to achieve given result. After confirming this option, a dialog box will appear in which you can see how Excel calculates the final sum. The more complex your budget, the calculation will take longer, but it should not take more than a few seconds. In the end, you will be able to see the default value as well as the value calculated. Also, in the table itself, we will see the final sum of the cells and cells that we have moved to reach the goal.